hail mary
In American football: a desperate, long-distance forward pass with no realistic completion expectation.
Etymology timeline
Born ~1970 · 1 year of recorded useSeen in the wild
✨ ¡Se ha confirmado la adaptación al manga de 'Proyecto Hail Mary', la novela de Andy Weir! 📖 Será publicado en la revista 'Haya Comic'. ✍️ Adaptado por el mangaka Hajime Go.
My apologies to everyone I know, but after seeing the movie twice in a week and reading the book, Project Hail Mary is going to be my entire personality for the next month.
I think the optimistic take is that they’re holding back the good stuff. The IMAX preview ahead of Project Hail Mary was pretty thrilling
Andy Weir Can't Stop Recommending This Sci-Fi Book To Project Hail Mary Fans Project Hail Mary author Andy Weir keeps on recommending this sci-fi book everywhere he goes, and it's not hard to understand why.
Millions in NIL and a football future are on the line as Brendan Sorsby makes a desperate Hail Mary attempt to mitigate NCAA gambling allegations. Can attorney Jeffrey Kessler snag another win? We’re about to find…
Definitions
In American football: a desperate, long-distance forward pass with no realistic completion expectation. Originally and still actually a Catholic prayer.
"They threw a Hail Mary at the buzzer."
“✨ ¡Se ha confirmado la adaptación al manga de 'Proyecto Hail Mary', la novela de Andy Weir! 📖 Será publicado en la revista 'Haya Comic'. ✍️ Adaptado por el mangaka Hajime Go.”
— Bluesky· May 2026“My apologies to everyone I know, but after seeing the movie twice in a week and reading the book, Project Hail Mary is going to be my entire personality for the next month.”
— Bluesky· May 2026“I think the optimistic take is that they’re holding back the good stuff. The IMAX preview ahead of Project Hail Mary was pretty thrilling”
— Bluesky· May 2026“Andy Weir Can't Stop Recommending This Sci-Fi Book To Project Hail Mary Fans Project Hail Mary author Andy Weir keeps on recommending this sci-fi book everywhere he goes, and it's not hard to understand why.”
— Bluesky· May 2026“Millions in NIL and a football future are on the line as Brendan Sorsby makes a desperate Hail Mary attempt to mitigate NCAA gambling allegations. Can attorney Jeffrey Kessler snag another win? We’re about to find out. www.foxnews.com/outkick-spor...”
— Bluesky· May 2026
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Semantically related
- layoff56%
(British, football) A short pass that has been rolled in front of another player for them to kick.
- hard pass56%
(sports) A pass to another player that is delivered with a particularly high level of force.
- hospital pass54%
(figuratively, sport, British, Australian, Irish) A poorly executed pass to a team-mate, who is likely to lose the ball as a result. (Originally rugby union, where the recipient of a hospital pass is a sitting duck for a hard tackle.).
- heel out53%
(American football, dated) To kick a ball backwards.
- dime53%
A particularly long or precise throw that ends with a catch.